


Let Go

by GilbertsMangoes



Series: Tales of Dramione [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Grief, Loss, Lots of it, M/M, Sadness, draco is heartbroken, dying, hopelessly in love senior citizens, writing this made me cry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:20:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26014024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GilbertsMangoes/pseuds/GilbertsMangoes
Summary: The Malfoys say goodbye to a beloved woman.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Series: Tales of Dramione [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1888141
Comments: 11
Kudos: 34





	Let Go

**Author's Note:**

> felt like writing something depressing, so here we go... The year is 2035(she's 56 years old).

Draco had never really thought about dying. Sure, he knew that someday he'd get there, that his life and experiences would be reduced to oblivion in a matter of seconds, but he'd never stressed on it too much. He figured that when his end came knocking on his doorstep, he'd accept it and move on to a new world, whatever was waiting for him beyond the Doors of Death. 

He'd never faced Death when its claws were poised over someone he loved so dearly, ready to steal them away from this world, away from him.

One month. 

That's all they'd given her. One lonesome, tear stricken, bed ridden month. It seemed so darkly fitting, yet so strange all the same. A muggle would bring her into this world and a muggle disease would take her out. Hermione Granger had survived 2 wizarding wars, a world renowned war hero in one, yet couldn't make it out of one accursed six letter word.

Cancer.

She talked about herself as if she was already gone, telling him to make arrangements and talking about how he'd have to move on without her, and she might as well have been. At this point, she was pumped with so many pills, so many drugs in a futile attempt to keep her feeble heart beating. 

He had kept a silent countdown in his head, starting from the gracious 31 he had received. As the numbers got smaller, the days seemed to get shorter, more clipped as his time with her ran out.

Finally, the numbers got to -3, Draco growing gaunter and sadder by the day as his love's health diminished with his hopes. At first, he thought there may have been a chance of her beating the odds, of proving those damned Healers wrong, but even a blind man could see it; She was getting worse.

It was unlucky day -4 when she beckoned him over to her hospital bedside.

"It's going to be today," she said solemnly, holding on to his pale and aged hand with a weak grip. She spoke of it so unfazed, as if she was completely prepared, though her voice was raspy and broken. In a sick way, he supposed she was. It was him who was completely unprepared to lose her, though he'd had such an abrupt warning about it. "I can feel it."

"No," he shook his head in pure denial, a frown etching itself deep into his face. "No, you're not going to leave me now, Mya. Not after everything." One moment, he was at peace, the next moment, he found himself with tears slipping down his face.

She smiled kindly and sadly at him, reaching a shaking hand up to his face, running a sickly and bony finger across all the laugh lines that had accumulated over the beautiful times of the last 40 odd years of companionship and 32 years of marriage. 

"Call Cass and Scorp. I want to see them one last time before I go. Tell them to bring Lissa and Orion." He nodded, picking up the phone with a trembling hand. 

Cassiopeia picked up immediately, fearing the worst. "Is Mom...?" 

"Not yet, Cass," he divulged, playing with his sparse and gray hair nervously. "But she thinks... she thinks it's time." There was dead silence as his daughter took it in and he thought for a moment that he heard a sniffle.

"But we can't be sure," she objected, trying to delay the inevitable. "She may be wrong." She said it so desperately that anyone could see that she was trying to convince herself more than anyone else.

"We can't but... she's never been wrong about anything in her life, and I doubt she's going to start now."

The 26 year old woman chuckled hollowly and humorlessly over the phone. "I'll be right there."

"She wants you to bring Lissa."

"Yeah, I just don't know how I'm going to break it to her," she sniffled, trying to hide the sound of her cries from her dad. He needed her to be strong right now. His wife was dying right before his eyes for goodness sake! "She loves her so much."

"We all do," a morose silence hung over the line, a moment of understanding exchanging between father and daughter. 

"I'll pick up Scorp and Remus on the way." Scorpius and his husband(Ginny and Blaise's kid) had an adopted son of their own, Orion. He hung up the phone and walked to his wife's bedside.

"Are they coming?" she asked weakly, voice trembling and tired. 

"Yes, they're on their way, love," he affirmed, running a hand through her thin brown hair, which had lost all of its bushiness and was now shorn in a choppy pixie cut. Yet another thing about her which sickness had taken away.

"Good."

It wasn't long before the crowd of their children and grandchildren came up, all looking sullen and glum. Cassiopeia was hopelessly trying to dry the tears in her eyes, her 5 year old daughter holding her hand next to her.

"Only 3 in the room at a time," a stray nurse chided.

"Scorp, you and the kids can go first," Cass suggested, wanting to compose herself before visiting her dear mother. 

"Come on, Lissa, Orion," the blond haired man urged, pecking his husband on the cheek before going into the hospital room.

Every time Scorpius had visited his mother, he was always blown away by her appearance. Somehow, even after months of suffering, his mom had a completely different appearance to him than the cadaverous woman before him. When he thought of his mom, the picture that came to mind was a sprightly bushy haired young woman, dancing around the kitchen while cooking dinner and singing to Taylor Swift while twirling him and his younger sister every so often.

He'd complained back then, being a moody 9 year old, saying it was 'embarrassing'. Now he'd give anything to be back there, with his mom dancing around like normal. Instead of gentle lines around her mouth signifying years of laughter, the bones were protruding out of her gaunt face unhealthily. Instead of dancing about, she was lying weakly on the bed. Instead of ruffling his hair, she could only grasp his hand feebly and tell him goodbye.

"Hi, Mom," Scorpius addressed, keeping a watery smile on his lips, eyes brimming with salty tears. His little boy looked around in confusion with his companion.

"Scorpius," she mustered a smile on her face. "Come, sit by me. I want to see the kids."

"Is Gigi sick?" Felicity, or Lissa as so endearingly named, asked innocently, not fully comprehending the concept of death at the age of 6. 

"Should we make her some chick'n noodle soup? That's what she did when I had the sniffles," Orion chimed in, agreeing with his cousin sister. 

"I'm quite alright," Hermione chuckled, her feeble laughs quickly turning into a violent coughing fit. Her son, who was the picture print of Draco, rushed to her bedside with a handkerchief.

When she finally stopped, the small piece of cloth was blood-spattered. 

"D'you need a band-aid, Gigi?" Orion asked sweetly, looking up at her with starry hazel green eyes. His grandmother, or Gigi to him, had always been his favorite person ever since he and his sister had been adopted by Scorp and Remus almost 6 years ago, when he was just barely a couple months old.

"No, no," she shook her head. "Come here, Orion darling. You too, sweet Felicity." He skipped along obediently, struggling to hop on one of the taller chairs before finally getting a boost from his Dad(not to be confused for his Papa) and looking at his frail Gigi with loving eyes. Scorpius couldn't help but wish to be a child like Orion, who saw past the rough exterior of anybody, immediately unearthing and seeing past it to their best qualities. 

Felicity pushed Orion to the side, both of them sharing the chair. She placed one of her hands on her grandmother's bed.

"Orion, Lissa, very soon, I'm not going to be here anymore," she explained softly, not having the strength to speak more.

"Why? Are you goin' on a vacation?" Orion cocked his head to the side, his jet black curls falling over his eyes. 

"No, dear. I'm going to a better place, somewhere far far away where you won't see me again for a very long time."

"Oh," he frowned, his brows furrowing. "But when will I see you again?"

"I don't know, 'Ri. Hopefully not for a very long time." At this, the young boy's bottom lip quivered, teardrops spilling down his smooth golden freckled cheeks. 

"But I'm gonna miss you while you're gone," he cried, wiping his tears with his small and delicate hand. "Who's gonna make me treacle tart when Papa says I can only have a sandwich?"

"I'm sure Poppy would be very happy to do that for you," she comforted, placing her hand on his and caressing it with her thumb gently. 

"But where are you going?!" Lissa wept, shaking her head in denial. 

"I'm going where all dead people go, dear heart. To somewhere far away where nobody knows. I'll be with God."

"You're...you're dying?" she asked lamely, burrowing her face in her hands. 

"Yes," Hermione intoned gently. 

"I don't want you to leave me, Gigi," Orion sniffled.

"I don't want to leave either, Ri. But sometimes, God wants people back so he can put new people in the world."

"I don't want some stupid new baby in the world that I don't even know," Lissa spat, shaking her head. "I want my Gigi to stay forever!"

"I know, I know, Lissa. I wish I could too. But my time is coming. It'll be okay. Besides, I won't really be gone."

"You won't?" she sniffled, peeking her head out of her hands. 

"No, not at all. When you look up at the stars every night, that's where I am. Always watching over you. You may not see me, but I'm there beside you for all your life."

"You promise?" Orion said meekly, sticking his bottom lip out.

"I promise. Now, why don't you two go to Poppy outside and tell Cass to come in? I want to talk to her and Scorp." They nodded and scampered off, drying at their tears. 

Soon, Cassiopeia and Scorpius were seated beside her, each trying to dry tears of their own.

"Mom," the younger girl sobbed as if she wasn't 26, but rather a 10 year old child again. "How am I going to live without you if you go today? You can't!"

"Oh, Cass, honey," she consoled, though her daughter couldn't help but think it should be the other way around. "You'll be alright. You have your dad and Scorp and your little girl!"

"She's right," Scorpius chimed in, holding his mother's hand. He had always been a mama's boy, even though he looked exactly like his dad. "You've always been there and now..." his voice cracked. "Now you're saying that you're going to go. No one can replace you, mom, it doesn't feel fricking right to move on! It would be such an injustice to your memory!"

The older woman scoffed. "Scorp, the real injustice would be if I had to live- a little pun there- or rather die knowing that my family would be miserable because of me. Remember me in all the good moments, imagine I'm there, but don't be hung up over something you can't change."

"Too soon, mom. Too soon," Cass laughed through tears.

"I love you both so much. I'm so proud of what you two have become. Cass, being a single mother and still being a position of power in the Ministry, you've made me so proud. Scorp, starting your own business at this young age, being a gay man in this harsh world, you're so courageous."

"We love you too, mom," they chorused.

"Ah, I'm tired..." Hermione pondered, closing her eyes for a second. "Will you two be so kind and send your father in here? I... I can feel it coming. I want to tell him something." The two bent down to kiss their mother on the cheek before walking out, each step feeling like the penetration of a thousand knives.

Draco stepped in tentatively. "Love?" 

"Draco, I... I feel it. I'm ready to let go," she sighed. 

"I'm not," he croaked. "Not after all this time. I can't. How can I live, Mya? How can I live without you?"

"You will," she calmed, placing a hand on his lightly stubbled face. "And it won't be without me. I'll be with you still and I'll be waiting for you when you come too, which better not be for at least another couple decades!" 

"No," he denied. "No, I can't! All this time, every hard point in my life, this has got to take the cake because at every hardship, I had you and now... now I'm losing you."

"No, not losing me. Just... saying see you later. You'll be alright without me, darling."

"Mya, you don't understand! How can life mean anything without you?" His voice cracked, tears welling up in his eyes as he desperately tried to push them away.

"Oh, Draco! How can you say that when there's so much to live for? You have kids and grandkids and friends all supporting you! The world is such a beautiful place, go enjoy it, with or without me."

"The world is gray for me without you."

"Draco, love, angel, owner of my heart forever, listen to me. You've made it this far. You'll make it without me. You're the strongest person I know and I WISH sometimes that I didn't have to put you through this pain, but I do and for that, I'm sorry."

"I should be the one apologizing. I feel like I failed you, like this could've been prevented if I had just found the right potion or spell or-"

"Stop right there, Draco. This was uncontrollable and now all you can do is move on. And I can't be happy and progress through my existence unless you promise me that you'll have a good life without me. That you'll be alright."

"No, I-"

"Promise me," she repeated, looking into his eyes with such passion and stubbornness that for a moment, he was back at Hogwarts, her commanding him to ask her to the Graduation Ball right this minute or Ron was going to ask her first.

"I... I can't promise I'll be as happy as I was with you. Hell, I'll never be as happy as I was. But... I'll keep going, for you. I'll do anything for you."

"This isn't goodbye. I love you with everything I have, Draco." He maintained a grip on her hand.

"I love you too, Hermione. I love you so much," With that, she smiled a weak smile up at him and closed her eyes, still having her hand in his. 

In a few short minutes, the pulse on the monitor was silent. Her rosy face was devoid of color, instead an ashy gray that was completely unlike the woman he knew, always passionate and colorful. Her skin was ice cold.

She passed to the other side with a smile on her face, greeting Death as an old friend as he promised her that she'd be okay, that her family would be okay. 

Meanwhile, Draco stepped outside with his head stooped downwards. The burning was in his eyes, but no tears came.

His family waited expectantly.

With a single shaky breath, he croaked, "She's gone." And that's when he collapsed on his knees, the dam finally breaking. 

It was Cass first who ran up to him and sat down, throwing her arms around her father and weeping also. Then the kids, then Scorp and then Remus. Draco would mourn her for a long year or two, than remember her fondly for decades.

It was 30 years later when he was finally reunited with her, surrounded by his aging children, grown grandchildren, and sweet young great grandchildren. She greeted him looking like the eighteen year old he had fallen in love with, bright smiled and bushy haired. He smiled feeling her warm hand in his, soft and comforting like always.

Come, Draco, my love, I have so many adventures to take you on.

Finally, the pair now rid of gray hairs and growing pains finally enjoyed eternity together.


End file.
